Glory and Gore
by Biggle Cakes
Summary: Jason Grace has lived and fought as a gladiator for a year after being arrested for protecting his mother and sister from Roman soldiers. He's kept a secret for years, but when Percy Jackson - a greek criminal and someone from Jason's past - is thrown into the arena, Jason is roped into a plan for escape involving sorcery, scandals, princesses, and revealing godly secrets.
1. Prologue

**(most of) the characters in this story belong to Rick Riordan but the plot belongs to me :) **

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><p>Jason prepared himself for what he knew would be carnage.<p>

The cell they kept him in reeked of fear, terror, and faintly of lions. He shook his hands out in front of him, the chanting crowd outside wracking his nerves further. He walked to the other side of his waiting cell and picked up his imperial gold spear, liking the familiar feeling of its weight in his hands but not the heavy guilt that rested on it.

His breathing echoed around the damp chamber as he stared at the sharp point of his spear and recounted the faces of the one, two, three - fifty people murdered by his hand. He'd slaughtered them while a crowd of thousands watched, their eyes widening and pulses racing with a sick thrill as blood was spilled on the dirt of the Colosseum ground.

Jason knew that the audience loved him, he'd survived for so long, beat so many impossible odds, but he was scared for his life today. They -whoever _they_ was that decided these things - had given him a large brass shield. On the front was the face of a lion roaring, it's teeth bared in a display of anger.

They usually gave him a spear, or a sword, sometimes a club. Sometimes nothing at all. But today they had given him a shield, which meant that he was going to need to defend himself.

Jason went and sat by the door, his footsteps louder than they should have been in the large empty space. He pulled his coin out of his pocket and flicked it up in the air as he waited, remembering what his sister had told him a year ago.

_Stay strong, Jason, they mean to break you. Don't give them that satisfaction._

Her blue eyes still burned in his mind as they shoved her away from him, her black hair that was once long and beautiful now cut short like a boy's. She meant to run away and join a hunting party before they discovered who she was, but Jason never knew if she got that far.

"Jason?"

Jason stood quickly, peaking through the peep hole in the wooden door, knowing who it was and how little time they had.

"Frank, you risk too much to be here right now. You are already on probation from last time, do you not remember?" Jason chided. He worried Frank would be caught trying to help him one day, slipping him bread or a giving him a small knife easily disguised to fit in a boot or strap to his leg.

"I must be quick but, Jason, you've got to know one of your opponents will be difficult to take down. It's going to be a double round, so if you ally with him you won't have to try and oppose him" Frank advised, his words rapid and rushed, but Jason listened carefully.

"What makes him different from the rest?" Jason asked quickly, his ear pressed to the door.

"He claims to be a son of Neptune. He says Poseidon, which makes him a Greek. He's insane, do not try to kill him. They needed five guards to get him into his chambers" Frank blabbered, making Jason's stomach roll.

Son of Poseidon. A demigod. Or so he claims. Jason's heart leapt in his chest at the possibility that he was no longer alone.

"I must go. Good luck, friend" Frank said, before disappearing down the stone hall in a flash of gold armour and red plumage.

Jason nearly ran to the gates, his brass shield strapped to his arm and his spear gripped tightly in his right hand, the light pouring in from the arena almost blindly bright.

A demigod. He wasn't crazy like they said. He wasn't insane.

Finally, after what felt like hours of waiting, the gates of his cell lifted with a scraping sound, and Jason ran out into the arena.

He was greeted with the cheering of a thousand people, their voices like the thunder that haunted Jason's dreams at night. It took him a few seconds for his eyes to adjust to the light of the midday sun beating down from the sky, like Helios himself had stopped his chariot mid flight to watch.

Two other barriers opened, both of them containing two big burly men with deep scars and horrible red faces, their missing teeth reminders that they were veterans of the arena. But none of them were demigods, that much Jason knew for sure. He waited eagerly for the last gate to open, his palms becoming sweaty and his armour weighing a thousand tons.

The gate lifted and into the blaring sun stepped a boy no older than Jason. He wore a greek helmet, the horse hair plume cut off in a display of dark humour. They'd made fun of him, mocking him by giving him ruined greek armour, all dented in and smashed. Useless celestial bronze that looked like it should have fallen apart when he put it on. They'd gone that bit further by giving him a trident and a weighted net, the weapons of Poseidon, which was humiliating.

The assemblage of people booed when he stepped into the sunlight, shaking their fists at the greek boy as if he was garbage. They would never like him, they would never root for him the way they did for Jason. If only they knew.

"LET THE GAMES BEGIN" the voice called out, resonating in Jason's skull as the usual words that could be the last he'd ever hear.

Jason charged immediately towards one of the large men, brandishing his spear and yelling the entire way, baring his teeth like the lion on his shield.

The man stabbed his sword forward, but at the last moment Jason dug the tip of his spear into the dirt and vaulted himself over the top of the man before he'd known what had happened. As the man spun around to face Jason behind him, Jason threw his spear so hard it hit the man directly in the stomach and sent him flying backwards.

"_Volo vos estis fortuna_" Jason murmured over the roar of the crowd, pulling out his spear from the shaking man's gut "_omnibus ad quaecumque perrexeris_."

The audience were pleased he'd taken the large man down so easily, although he knew they'd want him to make the other one's death last longer so they had more to watch. So Jason turned, fully intending to run to the man and fight him to the death, when he found he'd been beaten to it.

The self-claimed demigod was taking on the other man.

The greek boy fought amazingly, to Jason's utter surprise, and apparently everyone else's as well. He had a different technique, slashing and rolling instead of direct fighting. Jason guessed it shouldn't be that surprising. Under all the unnecessary embarrassing armour, he had the body of a well trained soldier. Lean and tall, built for speed and agility.

The boy parried a blow and that knocked off his damaged helmet, revealing a head of wavy black hair. Jason ran to him, ready to come to his aid and help him take down his opponent when the boy did an dark move and stabbed the man through the throat with the Trident.

Jason froze in shock, the sudden blow surprising him.

The greek boy stabbed the man through the jugular, letting him stand and choke on blood with rusty metal in his throat until finally he jerked right and slashed the man's throat wide open. It was horrifying to behold and although he was a greek criminal, the crowd cheered like they never had before, going insane with the sight of pure bloodshed and death.

Jason's nostrils flared with disgust at the red that stained the sand of the Colosseum, too much to just be a wound.

The greek boy's chest heaved and he dropped the trident and the net, collapsing to his knees and gasping for breath.

Jason ran over to him, and got down on his knees beside him. The cheering died down when the people realised Jason wasn't going in to kill the traitor.

"They aren't going to like that you won. Stay low and don't draw attention to yourself" Jason instructed in a low voice, his eyes fixed on the dead body, pale from lack of blood.

The boy turned, his eyes green like the ocean on a stormy day, and just like the water during a hurricane, they looked unfriendly and cold.

"I'll keep mine and you keep yours, son of Jupiter" he snarled, standing and stalking away.

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Later, when Jason and the boy were crowned with matching laurel wreaths, he learned his name. Perseus Jackson, the son of Poseidon, the boy from his childhood.

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><p><strong>Hi guys so I just came up with this idea and HAD to write it bc usually I just write the first chapter and then never ever publish it but this is something I'm really excited about - also this was a prologue so its pretty short! <strong>

**I hope you enjoyed it, and also if you liked it please don't forget to leave a review and if you didn't like it please feel free to tell me why. **

**May i just add before the story progresses further all the information I can gather of Gladiators and Ancient Rome + Greece I get off the internet or out of books, so if any of it is inaccurate you can let me know but I may not be able to change it for reasons involving the plot of the story **

**Have a good day/night, thankyou for reading (¬‿¬)**


	2. I

**thankyou so much for reading the last chapter (which was short and kinda crap) and thankyou for reviewing if you did! This chapter will be better and longer (: **

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><p>Jason didn't want to dream at night. He always saw the same horrific things, experienced the same flashbacks, but he couldn't control it. He had to sleep.<p>

Tonight he dreamt he stood on the edge of a cliff overlooking a vast ocean, hot wind whipping at his face and his tunic and ruffling his short hair. He wore a laurel wreath and saw the storm clouds roll in, lightening forking out to sea but rapidly approaching where he stood.

Jason watched, frozen, as dream-him - no older than 6 and being chased by his older sister Thalia - ran towards the cliff at full speed, looking back over his shoulder and not watching where he was going.

"Jason!" Thalia yelled, but it was too late, dream-Jason toppled over the edge.

Thalia dropped to her knees and wailed, clutching her hair and screaming, until Jason flew back over the lip of the cliff and back onto the grass as though someone had caught him and thrown him back up. The little boy stood shocked for a second, wobbling on his feet before smiling widely and throwing his arms in the air.

"I flew!" He exclaimed proudly as his older sister rushed forward and cradled him to her body "like a bird!"

Then the scene rippled like someone had dipped their hand in a clear pond, and Jason was sitting at the head of a long banquet table. The other guests were all the men he'd killed in the arena, sitting in what they died in: armour, blood running down their temples or gaping wounds in their stomachs. They sat and stared at the food longingly, like they wanted to eat it and couldn't.

Jason stood with a chalice of blood in his hands and all the dead men looked to him.

"I apologise" he said, and they all lifted their cups to him.

"We forgive you, son of Jupiter" they all said in unison, creating a chorus of dead croaky voices.

Jason woke on his hard bed in a cold sweat. He sat panting for several moments, collecting his wits and staring at his tattooed hands; something the people of Rome could identify him by if he ever escaped.

It was the middle of the night, that much Jason could tell. Moonlight filtered in through his high cell window, and he thought about his family left behind

His mother and sister had called the moon Selene, but he'd been retaught to call her Luna. Jason remembered sitting in front of a fire, his head rested on the arm of the whicker chair his mother would sit on and tell stories in. Thalia would whack at a wooden post she'd made with a knife or a stick, pretending they were fabulous weapons forged by Cyclopes under the sea like something out of their mother's tales. His mother would stroke his hair, close her eyes and smile, her beautiful face lit up by the warm, crackling flames.

She'd told them Greek stories, and in the end, that was part of his downfall.

A knocking on the door interrupted his thoughts and he threw off his thin canvas blanket, standing immediately and resting his hand instinctively on his hip where he usually kept his sword.

The door unlocked despite Jason not answering it, and Frank stepped in, closing the door softly behind him.

"Jason, I bring news" he pressed, stepping forward and taking off his helmet.

Frank had taken immediate pity on Jason when they had met. Jason was thin and fragile from weeks in jail when they saw each other first, and Frank was a new recruit into the army, still soft from lack of experience.

They were even around the same age, and had struck up a friendship. Jason always felt guilty, because he had nothing to offer the relationship between the two, whereas Frank always had new information that would help him, or an extra blanket on a cold night. All Jason could do was try not to die and make sure Frank's efforts didn't go go waste.

"What's the news? Does it have anything to do with Perseus Jackson?" Jason asked eagerly, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes and walking towards Frank.

"No, but Jason, there's going to be a special guest at the next fight. A princess. She holds no royal power but she's fabled to one of the most beautiful girls in the land" Frank gushed, his ears turning pink "almost as beautiful as Venus herself and twice as beautiful as Helen of Troy."

"And?" Jason asked, raising his eyebrows. As much as extraordinarily beautiful Princesses appealed to him, he had given up the luxury of romantic love a year ago, along with everything else, for that matter.

"The winner becomes her husband" Frank said, pausing for dramatic effect.

He noticed Jason didn't seem too enthusiastic, so he kept talking.

"The winner doesn't become king because there are sons lined up for the throne, but he does get to go live in some beautiful place in the country with the princess, waited on hand and foot by servants. He gets a full pardon for his crimes and is excused from the Colosseum forever. Jason, this could be your way out!" Frank sounded so excited for Jason, but he couldn't help but see some flaws.

"Why isn't she married already? Why give her away as a prize?" He asked, sitting on his bed and looking up at Frank.

Frank was huge and made people anxious. His upper arms rippled with corded muscle, and the fact he carried a bow and arrow with him at all times did nothing to help steady a nervous heart. His gold armour was just another thing that made people fear him. What was so strange then, to Jason, was how kind and caring he was.

Frank spluttered, running his fingers through his short hair while opening and closing his mouth like a confused fish.

"This could be your way out!" Frank repeated, putting his hands on the back of his neck.

"I would rather earn my way out than win it by some princess" Jason muttered, laying back on his bed and picking at a loose thread on his blanket.

Frank yanked the blanket off Jason.

"You don't need to earn your way out of something you don't belong in" he snapped, his voice low.

"I do belong here. I violated the rules of Rome. I am a criminal and am being punished like one" Jason argued. They'd been through this a thousand times.

Jason was at the wrong place at the wrong time, and he did the wrong thing when he should have done nothing at all. Mostly he did it to save Thalia, but he didn't want to think about it.

"Jason, you protected your ill mother and sister, and got taken to jail for hurting a soldier in the process. The soldier wrongfully accused your sister, you're not the one to blame. He should be fighting for his life right now, not you" Frank urged, trying to coax Jason into fighting for the Princess's prize.

_Ill_, Jason thought. He had told everyone that Thalia and his mother were ill, driven insane by a temporary fever. But the guard had seen it, he'd seen what Thalia had done and that man knew the truth.

"You're right" Jason said, swallowing hard "but that doesn't mean I want to marry a princess."

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Breakfast was a somber affair in the gladiator barracks for the criminals. The volunteers were given special treatment and a high protein meal including good meats and cereals. But for the people forced to be there, like Jason, they were given a small portion of leftover lean meat and a single piece of bread.

While Jason ate he could see Perseus Jackson sitting a few tables away, guards flanking either side of him and his hands shackled. Jason wasn't surprised he hadn't recognised him before, he looked very different since he had last seen him.

Perseus Jackson in his mind was a skinny little boy with a mop of black hair and big bright green eyes, his skin pale and his undernourishment showing through his thin arms and legs, all knobby elbows and knees. This Perseus Jackson, however, was the complete opposite. No longer skinny, he looked like he'd been in situations where he'd needed to build up muscle, and his skin was almost olive from what looked like a long time in the sun. He was taller and his eyes didn't seem so bright. He looked like a hard, broken man.

"I can eat by my_self_" Perseus insisted angrily, jerking his head away from the guard trying to spoon feed him. He grabbed the spoon with his shackled hand and began bitterly sipping the bland food he was given.

_Ah, the soup_. It was disgusting and watery, and looked just like Jason remembered it tasting.

Jason picked up his plate and moved tables. The guards didn't even look up when he went to move, and with shaking hands he sat down opposite the son of the sea god.

The shackled boy glared at Jason as he sat down through his dark eyelashes, his spoon gripped so tightly it started to splinter. A mug of water started to shake, and Jason reached over and held it still.

"Perseus..." he began, clearing his throat. He wasn't completely sure what he wanted to say, but firstly he wanted to apologise. Jason realised with a jolt of sadness that he had a lot of people he wanted to apologise to, but it had never occurred to him that the first person would be Perseus Jackson.

"Before we go on with this little sob-fest, could you please call me Percy?" He asked, and Jason nodded, eager to be on his good side.

"Wait," Percy said, holding up a finger to silence Jason as soon as he'd opened him mouth. He swivelled around on his bench and looked up at the guards.

"Can I have a second alone with this fine gentleman?" Percy asked, and when the guards didn't move his head slacked to the side and he raised his confined hands to their faces.

"Come on! I'm already handcuffed, and _chained_ to the _table!_ All I'm asking for is five minutes to be alone" he begged, rattling his chains to emphasize the fact he wouldn't be escaping.

The guards looked at one another before finally coming to an agreement, nodding.

"You have two minutes" one finalised, and Percy sighed.

"You lot are generous, aren't you?" He muttered as they walked away, before turning back around and facing Jason.

"Um, Percy, I wanted to say-" Jason began, but again, he was interrupted.

"I want to apologise for how I came off yesterday. Probably a bit rude of me, I guess, treating an old friend like that" Percy grinned, taking a sip from his cup of water and watching Jason from over the brim, his eyes shining with mischief.

It was Jason's turn to glare now, and he clenched and unclenched his fists, trying to let his anger wear down. It wasn't good when Jason got angry, which is why he'd avoided doing so for his entire life. But despite all his practise, the room started to smell like a storm.

"I came to say sorry to you, Jackson" Jason grimaced "but I guess you've already made up your mind about me."

"No, I made up my mind about you when you gave me into the soldiers for being the same thing you are" Percy informed, the smug smile never leaving his face as he talked. Jason wanted to punch it off.

"There was no other way-"

"How is it, being a demigod in here? I bet you haven't told anyone. No you couldn't have, could you? Because they all love you out there. Why do they hate demigods so much, do you even know?" Percy asked casually, like he was asking Jason how he thought the weather might be tomorrow.

"No one knows, you can't...you can't tell them" Jason whispered urgently. He only had another year after this and he would be out. Another year and he'd be free to walk the earth as his own man.

"Oh I won't tell anyone. I'm not a traitor like that" Percy assured, although Jason didn't know if he could trust him.

His green eyes were bright again, like Jason remembered. Only not with the joys of being a child, or being happy, but with some sick kind of glee. Jason could only imagine what he was thinking. How happy he'd be now they were on the same level.

"They hate demigods because they're powerful" Jason answered, his head down.

"Ah ha! Because they're _powerful! _Now your speaking some wisdom, Grace" Percy laughed, leaning back in his seat a little more comfortably.

"So powerful one would think they could probably break out of prison, wouldn't you say?" Percy asked, raising an eyebrow. There was a silent suggestion behind it, and Jason knew he had to deny that suggestion.

"I couldn't, my mother and Thalia might face consequences if I do something like that" Jason mumbled, swallowing against the lump in his throat. He had entertained the idea of escape many, _many_ times, but never gone through with it. He knew he could blast the door down and run for it, but who knows what would happen to his mother and sister when the word got out?

"As far as I remember Thalia can fend for herself" Percy said, before his eyes darkened, no longer dancing "you've been in here awhile haven't you?"

"A year" Jason answered, finally meeting Percy's eyes. He was surprised to see his gaze held nothing but pity and sorrow.

'What? Why're you looking at me like that?" Jason asked, leaning forward, but someone grabbed his shoulder.

He followed the arm up to Frank, who's face looked grim. "Someone has dropped off a present for you" he said.

Jason didn't see what was bad about a gift, but he stood anyway.

"Jason" Percy said urgently, standing up from the table, making it jump and a glass of water fall over.

The guards rushed forward and shoved him back down by the soldiers, and Jason held eye contact with him until he'd left the room, trying to figure out what he needed to tell him.

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"Now, don't be startled. Also, she _may_ try to bite you" Frank warned, searching his pocket for the right key to open the cell.

"Someone gave me a dog?" Jason asked. The gesture was nice, but he didn't really know how he could take care of a dog inside a gladiator barrack.

"_Not_ a dog" Frank said, shaking his head once. He finally got the right key and unlocked the door.

Jason really didn't know what to think.

Inside the dark cell, sitting on a wooden bench was a girl, her wrists and ankled bound, a gag in her mouth and the angriest expression on her face Jason had ever seen. She wore a white dress with gold fastens and a necklace made from eggshell white seashells. Her dark hair was piled on top of her head in a braid, but it was messy like she'd been shaking her head repeatedly. As soon as she saw Jason she screamed madly, thrashing around and shaking her tied hands at him and kicking.

Jason turned around and shut the door, standing unblinking to face Frank.

"_A girl?_" Jason implored, tilting his head forward.

"A girl" Frank confirmed.

"Why would someone _give_ me... a _girl?_"

"For winning the game I suppose? Admittedly I'm surprised you didn't get one sooner"

"WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH A GIRL?" Jason demanded, pressing his back against the door as a force bumped against it hard. Jason could hear grunts from the other side, and came to the conclusion that the girl was throwing herself against it.

"Well I guess they expected you to...you know" Frank said, blushing.

"I can't do that! She's been gagged and captured, and I think she'd disembowel me first!"

"It's up to you, Jason. She's been given to _you_. Although if it were me I'd leave her in there" Frank said, craning his neck to watch the door jump behind Jason's back.

"I can't just leave her to die!" Jason argued over the muffled maniacal yelling of the girl inside.

A sudden influx of soldier-guards ran down the passage way towards the eating quarters, weapons in hand, and Frank grabbed one's shoulder and asked what was happening.

"A prisoner started a fight in the eating space" the guard answered.

_Percy_, Jason guessed glumly.

Suddenly a door burst open down the corridor, and a wave of water gushed out, knocking some of the soldiers at the front of the assemblage off their feet.

"Styx" Jason swore.

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><p><strong>Thankyou for reading! As always, let me know if you liked it by reviewing! Also let me know if you didn't like it by messaging me or leaving (again) a review!<strong>

**If there are mistakes like grammar or spelling please let me know about them, but also keep in mind im a teenage girl writing this in my spare time ahahaha **

**I hope to be introducing more of the main 7 in the next few chapters, bc theyre all gonna be in this story, as well as some other characters like Nico & Reyna + tons of others **

**Again, thankyou for taking the time to read! **


	3. II

"Ow"

Jason frowned as the girl pounded her hands on his back, yelling insults he could just make out through her gag.

He had told her that she could keep it off if she didn't scream, but the moment he untied it she almost pierced his eardrums with her shrieks. He'd also told her that if she'd be peaceful and didn't try to run off he'd let her walk by herself, which again, hadn't worked out, because Jason had to run off after her the second she was unbound.

So now, he carried her over his shoulder to his living quarters while she thumped his back and kicked his chest, trying to wiggle out of the grip he had on her waist.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" Jason kept saying, shaking his head and picking up his pace so he was running.

They finally reached his room and he kicked open the door, set her down gently on his bed and ran to close the door, before turning around. She glared at Jason mercilessly, her multicoloured eyes sparkling with hate fire he'd never experienced before. Jason lived as a gladiator, he fought men and killed them for a living, but he'd never seen this kind of anger before.

"I'm not going to..." Jason said, thinking of the right word "I'm not going to do anything to you."

The girl started screaming again and Jason sighed heavily, flopping his arms next to him.

"Please! I swear I won't do anything you don't want!" To prove his point he kneeled down in front of her and timidly untied her ankles, thinking naïvely that her stillness meant she was calm.

Jason was very gentle to undo the cloth around her mouth, making sure he didn't catch any hair in his fingers, and he carefully undid the ties on her wrists, standing up in front of her and smiling politely.

"There now, better?" He asked warmly.

She responded by standing up and punching him in the gut. If he was a normal man, that would have made him double over and not get up for awhile, but he wasn't normal, and only flinched against it.

"HOW DARE YOU!" The girl snarled, punching continuously despite the fact Jason kept catching her fists.

"HOW DARE YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST _HAVE_ ME AS A PRIZE FOR WINNING SOME _COMPETITION_" she roared, Jason backing up every time she threw a hit until his back was pressed against the wall.

"I didn't think that" Jason said softly, turning his head away from her as she started to try and throw slaps.

"I AM A PERSON, NOT A TROPHY YOU THREE HEADED SON OF A GORGON" she swore at him, and he frowned deeply.

"That's a bit under the belt" Jason protested, feeling rather like a punching dummy.

"You want under the belt, Roman?" She seethed, her eyes warning him she wasn't lying.

Her braid had completely fallen off at this point, her eyes blazing with a passionate hatred Jason wasn't completely sure why she had. One of the straps of her tunic was about to slip down, but Jason was sure if he made a move to help her pull it back up she'd punch him in the nose.

"My name is Jason" Jason said, trying to make the conversation (if you could even call it that) friendly "what's yours?"

'Why do you care?" The girl said, finally giving up and collapsing back onto the bed again but looking no less angry. She paused before looking up at him.

"Piper. My name is...Piper" she muttered, fingering her shell necklace.

"Was this to make fun of me?" She asked him, lifting the necklace up.

"I think it was to make you look more appealing" Jason admitted, knowing he shouldn't have said it as he was saying it.

Piper stared at him mutinously. "You look too young to be here" she noted, "what did you do? Kill someone? Rob? Try and kidnap an innocent girl walking along the street?"

"I am _not_ the one who captured you" Jason told Piper firmly, pointing a finger at her.

"You're the one that's going to _'keep'_ me" she argued, her hands balled at her sides as she stood again.

"Please, I only want to help you" Jason said wearily, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"You don't want to help me" Piper spat, shaking her head "you just want to pretend like you will, gain my trust and then...and then _assault_ me!"

Jason flinched, putting his hands up and inching further away from Piper. He shook his head, suddenly miserable.

"I don't want to do that" he whispered "I don't want to do that."

He slumped against the wall, his elbows on his knees, staring at the floor as Piper stood over him silently.

All he could see when he closed his eyes was Thalia, how she'd looked when that guard had tried to attack her, the pure fear on her face, the lightening she summoned.

_Thalia, Thalia, Thalia._ His heart ached.

"I don't want to do that. I'd never do that" Jason said, standing, and looking down at Piper, who looked ashamed of herself.

"You've got to trust I want to help you" Jason said, pulling up the strap of her dress with no hesitation "because I alone am your only way out."

[][][]

Percy Jackson was not really the kind of man to hold a grudge.

He hadn't held a grudge when his mother abandoned him for a disgusting man in the city, because he knew she was doing it for him. He hadn't held a grudge when no one would give him work at the age of 9, because he was too thin and weak to really take on any job. He hadn't held a grudge when the captain of the ship he worked on threw him over board, because Percy knew he could survive in the water. He hadn't even held a grudge when the guards that found him stealing food from the marketplace tossed him in jail.

Then why did he still hold a grudge on Jason Grace? After so many long years?

Percy wasn't sure. After his little explosion in the eating hall, he'd been thrown into the stables for some little one-on-one time with the horses, where he'd had some time to think.

He fed the horses oats from a bucket and walked around petting their manes, spying a rogue pegasi in the back of the stables with large black wings the mortals must not have been able to see when they bought the horse. He made his way back there and stepped in, smiling at it. Petting horses cleared his mind, that much he knew.

He had had a farm when he was very young that his mother kept. She worked really hard on it too, and it was close enough to the ocean that Percy could go and splash around during the hot days and then come home at night and have a dinner his mother had made. It was just him and her, and it was great, and they'd had so many horses. Sometimes he'd sneak in when his mother wasn't around and he'd pet them and lose track of time, just a tiny little boy surrounded by horses he swore were talking to him.

His mother never said it outright, but Percy knew even before _the incident_ that he was the son of someone important from the way she said it. _Your father would be so proud_ or _one day, when he's not so busy with his big responsibility, he'll come and visit you. _

_And visit me he did, _Percy thought bitterly.

His mother would not approve of his hate towards Jason Grace, he knew that. But it was so hard for Percy after what had happened.

Percy knew the Romans hated demigods and their superhuman powers, and that hatred drove demigods into hiding many years ago. It'd been so long since anyone had ever actually seen one in action that people starting thinking they were myths, and anyone who claimed to be one was insane and needed to be imprisoned. If anyone showed signs of using godly powers, well, Percy knew first handedly that they would be killed on the spot.

He clutched the bucket tighter and stroked the horse a little less softly, before regaining his composure and breathing deeply through his nose. Jason was trying to protect his family, Percy would have done the same, but still, it was a terrible thing to do, what he did all those years ago.

"Father, I told you, I can walk by myself! Yes, I definitely can. No, I do not need a hand maiden!"

Percy ducked instinctively after hearing the definitely female voice yell out.

"But the gladiators, Annabeth, they might be roaming around here" warned a nervous male voice.

Percy chanced a peak over the stall of the stable and into the courtyard. It was dusk, and Percy realised he'd lost track of time again, he must have been in there for hours, giving names to the horses and brushing their coats.

The two people arguing were a father and daughter, that much was clear.

The father was a tall man who wore a silver crown aloft his curly blond hair, his brown eyes crinkled at the edges a scruff beard decorating his jaw and upper lip. He was wearing official looking robes and seemed like a pretty important person. He radiated an aura of respectability, like he was a very crucial element somehow.

Then, there was the daughter. Percy nearly toppled out of the horse stall. She had the same curly blonde hair as her father but a lot more of it, and on her head rested a circlet of shining silver. Annabeth, her father had called her. She turned and Percy caught a glimpse of flashing grey eyes, like the colour of storm clouds. She wore a silver bands on her biceps and bracelets and rings crowned with beautiful jewels looking like they'd been taken out of a treasure chest. Percy wasn't sure he'd ever seen someone so beautiful.

Percy was very well acquainted with girls, he knew that for sure. He'd flirted with mermaids, gotten the prettiest of girls to fall head-over-heels for him, even charmed a couple nymphs in his time, but suddenly his stomach felt like it had fallen to his feet and he found himself staring.

"You" the official man said, and Percy realised he was pointing at him.

"Me?" Percy mimed, pointing at his chest.

"Yes, you, stable boy, escort my daughter around the grounds" he ordered, and Percy thought, s_table boy, I can work with that_.

"Of course" Percy grinned, jumping over the side of the stable and into the courtyard.

"_Father_" the girl muttered, but the man waved her off.

"Thankyou, I'll leave you alone now." He tried to embrace his daughter, but she shrugged away from him and glared.

The man walked off shaking his head and Percy strode up to the girl and offered his arm.

"I am capable of walking by myself" the girl - Annabeth - said, crossing her arms. Percy smiled but lowered his arms, shrugging as he followed her.

She walked slowly, observing the buildings and tracing her fingers along the statues that lined the gravel path.

Ares - or _Mars_, Percy wasn't always sure - glowered at him as he walked past, Bellona staring off into the sunset and Victoria wearing laurels with her hands resting on the soldiers of gladiators, one standing with his foot on the throat of his rival, choking him. He remembered when he had to learn all the names for the God's again to fit in, before realising that Roman's don't really worship Neptune (or Poseidon) all that much.

"So what brings you here?" Percy asked, and for a second he thought Annabeth hadn't heard him. He went to repeat the question when she answered, not looking at him and rubbing some dust off a statue of Jupiter.

"Its none of your business stable boy" she said flatly, sounding bored with the conversation.

She looked up at him then, narrowing her stormy eyes and looking him up and down, scrutinizing him.

"But you're not a stable boy, are you?" She asked, coming closer. She grabbed his arm, and looked intently at the now healing gash in his arm.

"This is from a sword, probably imperial gold. And you have a fading black eye, like you've been punched, as well as this" she reached up and grabbed his bottom lip between her thumb and forefinger "a split lip, maybe from hitting the ground a bit too hard."

"Aren't you a wise girl" Percy teased after she let go and continued walking.

"I won't deny that" she said, and Percy thought he could see a little smile forming at the edges of her lips, before it turned into a frown "my mother was a very smart woman."

Percy nodded, leaning against the rim of a fountain with one arm and brushing a wave of hair off his forehead.

"What are you doing here, Wise Girl?" He asked, genuinely curious.

"I'm here as a prize" she admitted.

"What do you mean?" Percy asked, sitting down on the edge of the fountain as she sat down opposite him.

"I'm not married, which is absolutely _awful_, apparently. So my father thought that maybe he could make my being unwed interesting" she sighed, swirling her finger in the water.

"I'm being sold off as a prize to a gladiator" she said finally, and Percy let out a big breath.

"That's intense" he laughed, and she frowned deeper, creating crease lines on her forehead.

"Its not funny. I could end up marrying _you_" Annabeth said it as if it was the worst thing ever, and Percy put him hand on his heart.

"No no, I'm an honest stable boy" Percy joked, standing and puffing up his chest "not a huge gladiator, have you seen those men? They're the size of a Minotaur and twice as fat."

Annabeth laughed, a good honest laugh, her curls shaking behind her. "What's your name, stable boy?"

"Perseus" he answered with a smile. He was starting to forget where he was. Percy became aware he wouldn't have much longer before they realised he wasn't in the stables anymore.

"Perseus? That is _Greek_" Annabeth noted, and then she stopped smiling "are you _Greek?_"

"I am, yes" Percy admitted, watching in distress as the traces of happiness slipped off her face once again.

"I have to go now" she pressed, standing and lifting up her skirt like she was going to start running.

"Why? Please don't go" Percy pleaded, but she rushed past him and knocked him into the fountain.

While Percy was under the water he wondered if this was going to be his life now. Getting pushed into fountains and tossed into stables, every now and then exploding a barrel of water in a hall and fighting lions for the remainder of his days. It seemed pretty boring.

He sat up and climbed out, shaking his hands. He hadn't gotten wet, which really wasn't all that surprising for him.

"YOU'RE DRY" Annabeth yelled, pointing at him.

"Oh, you're still here" Percy said absently, flicking a piece of moss off his shoulder.

"How are you still dry?" She questioned, taking a few steps away.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you" Percy warned, angered by her fear of him.

So he hadn't gotten wet? What was the big deal?

"Try me"

Her tanned skin contrasted so incredibly with her eyes, Percy thought. She radiated smart, giving off waves of intelligence and Percy thought '_my mother was a very smart woman'._

The grey eyed goddess.

_Holy Hephaestus. _

"Athena" Percy said, grinning as he pointed his finger at her.

Annabeth spluttered, obviously ruffled, and Percy knew he was right by the way she was affected.

"I've met sons of Athena before" Percy said over Annabeth's confused noises "never daughters. Although you might be... daughter of... _Minerva_ is it?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about!" She said angrily, but Percy was sure she knew _exactly_ what he was talking about.

"THERE HE IS" a guard yelled, running around a corner and stumbling as several other guards collided into his back.

"Time to go" Percy said, getting down on one knee and smiling at Annabeth "it was a pleasure to meet you, wise girl."

The guards ran and Percy didn't even struggle as they held his arms and pulled him away, leaving the daughter of Athena to watch him go.

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**Thankyou for reading! **

**Have a good day (: **


	4. III

**a lot of this chapter is lions ahaha **

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><p>Lions.<p>

Jason would be fighting _lions_.

He wouldn't care, honestly, they'd made him fight lions when he was starting out and it was a lot easier than killing people, but something had been bothering him lately.

Percy Jackson had been bothering him, lately.

Percy wasn't angry even a little bit. He didn't cause a hassle, he didn't try and fight against his guards or make a single jug of water move. He smiled at Jason whenever he saw him. He thanked his guards when they successfully chained him up.

That bothered Jason greatly. He couldn't focus on his match, even as the gates were lifting and Jason held his golden spatha loosely in his hand. He walked out into the arena with his head down, absently shielding his eyes from the blaring sun. People cheered but his mind was a million miles away.

Piper was still in his room. Percy Jackson was a happy prisoner. He was fighting lions. What had happened to the world?

Jason turned as the first lion's cage creaked open, rusty metal clanging through the arena and sparking Jason's nerves. Electricity crackled in the palm of his hand and he forced it to go away.

The first lion was pitiful. An undernourished, sad thing with protruding ribs and a patchy hide. It roared meekly, teeth missing from its mouth and hardly a growl even coming out. Jason felt bad for the thing. Once a great beautiful beast with an incredible mane and a roar like an earthquake, now reduced to a tabby cat living on the streets. He felt like he could relate.

The second lion, however, was not any of those things. It had a powerful jaw, a full mane, and all its teeth. Jason gulped.

Dodging a halfhearted swipe from the sickly lion he decided he would go for the big one first. It required more attention then the other, so he ran at it and watched with muted horror as it ran at him at equal pace, it's powerful legs flying it along.

A lion was everything a gladiator was meant to be, powerful, large, frightening. So before Jason thrust his sword into the lion's neck, he sent it a small prayer.

Et dixit Confiteor tibi:_ I thank you_.

Jason felt the warm blood gush onto his arms and hands, but also the claws of the lion sink into his side and then rip his skin off. He must have miscalculated the length he'd kept the lion at, and he staggered back as the lion tried, still, to advance on him.

It's breathing was heavy and laboured, it's golden chest stuck with blood pouring from its neck and he knew it wasn't going to last much longer. Jason, blinded by pain, approached the lion as it collapsed and wrapped his arms around its middle. To the crowd of screaming people he was strangling it, but that's not what he was doing.

Jason listened for a second to its escalating heartbeat, trying desperately to get more blood circulating but finding that job impossible when the lion's body had already lost so much. Jason let some lightning crackle through his arms and into his fingertips, and with a final squeeze he electrocuted the lion and put it out of its misery.

He limped over to the skinny lion, holding his side with one hand. It felt like everytime Jason took a step a knife stabbed him in the kidneys, and he felt the hot blood on his fingers, spilling onto his leg. He moaned and with a final burst of energy jumped away from a bite and ducked a swipe and drove his sword through its stomach.

Jason and the lion collapsed onto the ground at the same time. Their blood mingled on the sand, creating a pool of crimson and making the crowd go wild. Red, red, red. That's all there was. All they wanted was bloodshed and that's what they got. The audience started throwing flowers as Jason tossed his head and groaned, squeezing his eyes shut so he blocked out the dazzling light from the sun completely.

He was so stupid, he'd never been hurt like this is combat before because he'd always been focused. This was all his life was. But ever since Percy Jackson had shown up Jason had been distracted and confused, his old life tugging at him and nagging like something that wouldn't go away. He wasn't just a gladiator fighting and surviving anymore, he was Jason Grace, who grew up hearing Greek stories and was the son of Jupiter, God of the sky. Jason Grace, who had left his family behind but protected them at the same time, Jason Grace who no longer was disconnected. All of it hurt more than the wound on his side.

_Kill me_, he thought, opening his eyes to the blinding sunlight, _just do it. I don't deserve to live._

He couldn't tell if he was delirious or not when a voice in his head screamed _no._

Finally someone came to get him when he stopped feeling the pain. It took awhile, he wasn't going to lie. He had gone very very pale and despite the situation he thought about what his mother used to say to him and Thalia.

_Hurting doesn't have to last forever unless you let it do so._

He wondered if that was true. Could someone just let go of their pain?

Maybe it was something she said so that Jason wouldn't feel so bad about how sad she was. She'd say it and Jason would believe that really his mother had let go of the pain his father had caused.

"Jason," a soft voice said.

He looked to his right as medics ran along with him on a stretcher, and squinted his eyes. No one was there.

"Jason" the voice said again, closer to his ear this time which was impossible.

"Jason I need your help" the voice was definitely female, but Jason knew he was just delirious.

He slipped in and out of consciousness for what seemed like an eternity but was really only a few minutes. Medicals pressed cloths and oils to his wounds as prayers were distributed throughout the ward.

_Please let him live._

_Heal him._

_Make sure he makes it out alive._

Jason found it a bit twisted that they would prey to his father, but if they found out that it was his son they were trying to save, he would be killed. Slaughtered publicly for being insane. A monster. Wrong. A halfbreed.

Jason tried to sit up but he was pushed back down onto the bed.

"STAY DOWN" someone yelled in his ear and he closed his eyes.

This had happened so quickly. One moment he was walking out into the arena like any other day, the next he was fighting for his life underground somewhere.

"What's going on?" Jason asked, his voice sounding strange to himself. Like he was talking underwater.

"You're dying" said a disembodied voice, before a girl stepped out of the shadows at the other end of the chamber, no older than him and strikingly beautiful "but I'm going to help you, Jason Grace."

He blacked out when she pressed her hands to his shoulders, no one else seeming to have noticed her.

[][][]

"Well look who finally decide to open his eyes"

Jason's immediate thought, despite his previous events of wildly hallucinating, passing out, and being mauled by a lion, thought that statement was strange because he hadn't opened his eyes.

"I haven't opened my eyes" Jason whispered, frowning as he felt the wound on his side. He was acutely aware of the cold feeling surrounding the warm injury.

"Yes you have" Piper said.

Jason recognised her voice. It was strange to hear her not angry.

"I can't see" Jason said. He waited and realised his eyes were open, but all he saw was black. Perhaps he'd gone blind. The thought didn't actually scare him. As he contemplated the ideas of being the first and probably _last_ blind gladiator that Rome had ever seen, his vision had started to blur back in.

Colours were smudged together and it was very dark in his cell except for a single, _very_ bright, candle.

"What's going on?" Jason asked, leaning his head back again and sighing.

"Well, do you want the long version or the short version?"

"Short, please"

"Okay, well, you fought a lion, got clawed, and then they rushed you into the medical ward and you passed out, lost a lot of blood then died. Then you came back to life and they rushed you back to your room to wait to see if you were going to die again" Piper explained, dabbing a wet cloth to Jason's side.

"_What!_ I _died?_" Jason exclaimed, jumping up.

"Your heart stopped beating. Then it started again. Its a miracle" Piper said, wringing out the cloth over a pail.

Jason's thoughts went to the girl from earlier. Her brown hair was in braids, her eyes dark blue like the twilight sky. She wore a circlet of silver and a hunting bow was slung over her shoulder.

_Diana,_ Jason thought. _Surely, it couldn't have been_. Even if somehow the Gods were watching him at that very moment, why would Diana help him?

"I can't believe it" Jason said.

Piper pressed harder against his side making his bare stomach muscles and jaw clench at the same time. It hurt very much, and by the looks of the cloths Piper was putting on him and pulling off, it was still bleeding.

"Why are you helping me?" Jason asked, looking at Piper.

She was very beautiful, he had never denied that. But she gave off an aura of _touch me and die,_ so he said nothing of her appearance to her.

"Because you are my only chance of escape, Mister Grace" she glared, pressing down harder than necessary on his side.

"Ow, no" Jason said, gently taking her wrists and pulling them away from the sore area. She shook off his hand and scrunched up her nose. That made Jason laugh.

"Will you ever trust me?" He asked, his smile failing when she shook her head with disgust.

"_Never_"

[][][]

The catacombs under the barracks were absolutely disgusting. They reeked of decaying flesh and sewage, as well as the strong, musky sent of lions that clung to about everything. Percy thought maybe there might be a way out down here, but it seemed like it was just as sealed off the rest of the place.

He kept the horrible water from touching him by concentrating, but every now and then a rat would startle him and he'd lose his focus. His senses were on high-alert down here, the hairs on his arms and the back of his neck standing up and tingling. Percy felt the feeling he got when was forced to jump off the side of the pirate boat, the foul, nervous feeling.

He followed the water flow, holding his nose and grimacing at how strong the smell of lion was becoming. It overpowered all the other odours, which was saying something, because every scent down in the catacombs was very strong.

Finally, Percy squeezed through a tiny gap in the stone walls, taking a deep breath and pushing into the space on the other side. He immediately jumped back, gagging on the air.

It opened up onto a large room with high ceilings, every inch of the walls mosaicked with images of rolling fields, blue skies, and tall jagged mountains that Percy thought could be Sparta, or Nemea, in Greece. The mosaics would have been beautiful if it weren't for the dry blood splattered against almost every inch of them and the grime that covered them.

The bodies of lions and men alike lay in the piles in the thigh deep water, some face down and rotting. Skeletons also littered the place, skulls smiling at Percy eerily. He recoiled and pressed his back to the crack he came in through. _What was this? _

_"I have killed many" _a deep, old voice said, echoing around the room as well as the drips of water. Percy shivered from fright and the sensation of being startled and became aware of his lack of weaponry, because he did not expect to face anyone down under the barracks.

"_My claws are like swords, no armour can withstand them_" the voice said, moving around the room and chilling Percy down to the bone. _Claws_, so it wasn't human.

"_My hide is impenetrable. Not even you can stop me, son of Poseidon. That's right - I know who you are, I can smell the ocean on you down in this filth from a mile away_"

Finally the thing behind the voice decided to show itself, although now Percy saw it, he wished it had stayed just a creepy voice.

A lion, eight times bigger than it should have been, erupted from a pile of bones and dead carcasses, its mane braided with bones of dead men and its muzzle clumpy with dried blood.

"I am the Nemean Lion, you poor fool, and you are about to die"

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><p><strong>THANKS FOR READING ILL TRY TO UPDATE SOON :) <strong>

**DONT FORGET TO REVIEW IF YOU LIKED IT **

**happy holidays **


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